Where Have You Gone, Jose Padilla?
The figure at arguably the most-contested civil rights case to emerge from the responses to 9/11--U.S. citizen Jose Padilla, who has been in federal custody as an "enemy combatant" for 3 and a half years--is going to trial.
Fingered publicly by then Attorney General John Ashcroft as a "dirty bomber," the AP says that Padilla and two others are now "accused of being part of a support cell that funneled fighters, money and supplies to Islamic extremists in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Tajikistan and elsewhere around the world."
More recently, Padilla's lawyers argued their client couldn't stand trial due to mental illness brought on by torture while in captivity.
Reason's Jacob Sullum contemplated the lawlessness of the way in which Padilla has been held here. And Harvey Silverglate took a long look at the Supreme Court's sketchy take on the the civil liberties of enemy combatants here.
